France Intends To Procure Saab GlobalEye
SAAB and the French defence procurement agency, Direction générale de l’armement (DGA), have today signed a joint declaration of intent regarding the sale of Saab’s GlobalEye Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft to France, including ground equipment, training and support.
The joint declaration of intent signed at the Paris Air Show, includes DGA’s intention to procure two GlobalEye aircraft from Saab and also includes an option for two additional aircraft.
A final notification process to complete the procurement will now follow. The DGA has stated that a contract is expected to be finalised in the coming months. The parties have not yet entered into a contract and Saab has not yet received an order for GlobalEye from France.
“We welcome today’s announcement by France about the intention to procure GlobalEye, which will enhance the French Armed Forces’ situational awareness and threat detection across the air, land and sea domains. Our solution will enable France to maintain full sovereign control of its airborne early warning and control capability,” said President and CEO of Saab Micael Johansson.
GlobalEye is an advanced multi-domain AEW&C solution with an array of active and passive sensors that provide long-range detection and identification of objects in the air, at sea and over land. By providing real-time information to air forces, armies and navies, GlobalEye enables enhanced situational awareness of the surrounding areas and early detection of threats.
This procurement comes at a time where AEW&C aircraft have been in the spotlight, following the recent India-Pakistan aerial skirmish. Saab told ADJ that interest in the GlobalEye had also seen an increase during the recent Indo Defence exhibition, particularly from the Southeast Asia region where according to experts many of the region’s air forces may be considered as “small”, though the explanation is not straightforward. In the immediate Southeast Asia region, only Singapore and Thailand operate AEW&C platforms from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Saab respectively.
The abilities of air forces are measured not just by the number of aircraft but can be said to be based on the four main air power roles, air combat, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations, strike attacks, and mobility. Small air forces have limited capabilities to pursue operations independently, and a limited-to-non-existent indigenous defence industry to support their air force operational readiness. -shp/adj/dl (Pix:SAAB)